Alcohol use can be a Parkinson's disease contributing factor, hampers treatment

Alcohol use can be a Parkinson's disease contributing factor, hampers treatment

Chronic use of alcohol often creates brain chemistry imbalances. It's a chicken and egg thing: The alcohol use also can stem from brain chemistry imbalances. Regardless of which comes first, one problem related to the alcohol use and brain chemistry could be Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's research has come a long way – thanks in part to actor Michael J. Fox and boxer Muhammed Ali. The central nervous system disorder is characterized by symptoms – like tremors, rigid limbs and slow movement – stemming from the death of cells that produce dopamine, a chemical in the brain. After following up with patients who had been to the hospital due to alcohol use, Swedish researchers investigated whether alcohol use disorders -- including the disease of alcoholism -- are linked to Parkinson's disease and found a relationship between the two.

Patients who abused alcohol were 1.4 times more likely to develop Parkinson's disease than patients who did not abuse alcohol. The risk was heightened among patients who had been to the hospital for an alcohol use disorder before they were 44 years old. Alcohol can cause a flux in the dopamine levels, but also damages brain tissue at the cellular level, as covered in a previous episode of The Sobriety :60+. More research lies ahead for the alcohol/Parkinson's connection, but enough connection has been revealed in the Swedish research and related animal studies to debunk old-school thinking that alcohol had a protective effect when it came to Parkinson's.

If the evidence-based science isn't enough, consider this: alcohol is a central nervous system depressant and can cause many symptoms that mimic, exacerbate, or mask Parkinson's. And another point of fact is that anti-Parkinson’s meds and the alcohol are a harmful combination and the mix can even overwhelm the liver's ability to metabolize either drug. The 10 percent of your body mass between your ears operates best within the delicate balance of the brain chemicals with which we're all born and specifically the dopamine and serotonin. Tossing a known toxin into the balance isn't likely to yield changes for the good, and may cause permanent change for the worse.